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As Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls on Thursday, November 9, some important facts to remember.
338 candidates are contesting the polls of which 19 are women.
The Election Commission says 112 candidates are Independents.
The ruling Congress and its rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party, are contesting all 68 seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party is contesting 42 seats, the Communist Party of India-Marxist is contesting 14, the CPI is contesting 3 and the Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party are contesting two seats each.
5.2 million (50.2 lakh) voters -- consisting of over 2.568 million (25.68 lakh) men and 2.457 million (24.57 lakh) women -- will cast their votes on November 9.
There are 7,525 polling stations across the hilly state.
According to the graph above, 8 crucial assembly seats will witness a tight contest.
A C-Voter survey predicts that the BJP will enjoy an 11.8 percent swing in vote share with the Congress set to suffer a swing of negative 5 per cent.
As per the graph above, the Himachal polls have never been straightforward.
If the Congress won the 1982 and 1985 elections, then it lost the one in 1990.
The C-Voter survey predicted that the BJP will double its tally of 26 seats and end up with 52 this time around.
The Congress, the survey added, will lose 21 seats, diminishing its current kitty of 36 seats.
A study by the Association for Democratic Reforms revealed that of the 338 candidates, 23 of the BJP's candidates declared criminal cases. 9 BJP candidates had serious criminal cases registered against them.
On the other hand, 6 Congress candidates had criminal cases registered against them.
When it came to the financials of the candidates, 59 of the 68 Congress candidates were crorepatis.
47 BJP candidates also declared themselves crorepatis.
